Day 2, Alpine, CA to Live Oak Springs, Ca

We got almost no sleep last night. The winds were almost non stop and roared like a 747 on take off. Nick and Carolyn's tent fly was ripped, Jim's tent blew down at one point in the night. My tent and everything in it was covered with dirt that came through the fine mesh screen. 

We wouldn't be smiling this morning if we knew what was in store for us. We left at 8:40 and had a big tail wind for ½ mile. Then we turned east and had 30 mph gusts in our face as we climbed steeply, on heavily loaded bikes. We had to ride on the shoulder of I-8 for almost 4 miles while the wind pummeled us in the face. At one point we were unwillingly stopped In our tracks by a vicious blast. The road was steep enough to make starting from a stop on a loaded bike difficult. The gusting wind made it beyond difficult and we elected to walk for awhile until the wind wasn't hitting us so hard. 

We had to exit I-8 and take 79 to Pine Valley. More climbing with stiff head winds for 5 miles then a short downhill (all downhills are short!) into Pine Valley were we had lunch. Just before town I got a front flat. We couldn't find any objects causing the flat. Pumping up the tube we saw a slit that had to have been caused by the flat proof strip I added before the trip. Putting things back together I noticed the front rack was loose. I went to tighten the bolt and found that it had been cross threaded by Roger (Bernie's bike shop in San Diego). Jim had to endure some expletives at that point. After Pine Valley we paralleled I-8 on Old Hwy 80 to Live Oak Springs where the campground listed was closed. Fortunately the campground 4 miles away was nice and charged us $10, $26 less than the previous night's camp. 

We rode the toughest 36 miles I ever hope to see and made a whopping 8.8 mph average.